Most spiritual traditions embrace four meditation postures, and at our advanced workshops we practice each of them. There’s sitting, which hopefully you’re in the process of mastering; there’s standing and walking, which are combined in the meditations you’ll learn in this chapter; and then there’s lying down. While each type of meditation posture serves its own purpose, place, and time, each builds upon the other to help us maintain and regulate our internal states—no matter what is happening in our external environment.
But what could be the relevance of bridging the sitting meditation with the standing and walking meditation? Although practicing your meditation when you wake up is an ideal way to start your morning, if you can’t maintain that energy and awareness throughout the course of your day, you’re likely to fall right back into the unconscious programs that have been running your life for years.
For example, let’s say you just finished your sitting meditation. When you open your eyes, you probably feel more alive, awake, clear, empowered, and ready to start your day. Perhaps your heart feels open, expanded, and connected, or perhaps you just overcame an aspect of yourself, shifted your energy, and emotionally embraced a new future. But more often than not, you may fall right back into your unconscious programs, and all the work you just did to create an elevated internal state dissolves into a never-ending to-do list: making lunches and sending your kids off to school, rushing to work, getting irate at the person who cut you off on the freeway, answering calls and returning e-mails, hustling to appointments, and so on. In other words, you’re no longer in a creative state because you’ve just returned to the habitual programs and survival emotions of your past. When this occurs, you disconnect from the energy of your future and essentially leave the energy you created right where you were sitting in your meditation, as opposed to carrying it with you throughout the day. You’ve energetically returned to your past.
Since I too have been guilty of this, I started thinking about how our students could take this energy with them and embody it during the course of their day. That’s why I created a meditation that includes standing and walking—so that when you become adept at raising your energy or frequency and marrying it with a clear vision, you now have a practice that enables you to maintain that elevated energy all day long so that over time this becomes your natural state of being. The purpose of this chapter is to help you do just that.
Walking into Your Future
You’ve already learned that throughout much of your day you are behaving unconsciously, unaware of what you’re doing and why. For instance, you may not remember driving to work because you were lost in an argument you had a few days prior, or you may be focused on how you’re going to respond to your significant other’s angry text. Maybe you’re simultaneously running three programs at once—texting, talking, and checking e-mails. You may not be aware of your nervous tics or their causes, your posture and how it’s perceived as shy, or how your speech, facial expressions, and the energy you bring into a room affect your coworkers. These unconscious programs and behaviors occur because the body has become the mind, and it’s the combination of these unconscious programs that makes up who you are. You know by now that when the body becomes the mind, you’re no longer living in the present moment—and so you’re no longer in a creative state, which means you’re keeping your goals, dreams, and visions at arm’s length.
By becoming aware of these unconscious behaviors and programs, however, you can work to actively broadcast a new electromagnetic signature that is in line with your future—and the more you broadcast that electromagnetic signature into the field, the sooner you will become it, and it will become you. When there’s a vibrational match between your energy and that future potential that already exists in the quantum field, that future event is going to find you—or better yet, your body will be drawn to a new reality. You will become a magnet to a new destiny, which will manifest as an unknown, new experience.
For a moment, think of your future reality as if it already exists, vibrating as unmaterialized energy in the quantum field. Imagine your future as the vibration coming from a tuning fork that has just been struck. The sound it emits is a vibration traveling on a certain frequency. If you also exist as a tuning fork, as you change your energy to resonate within the same harmonic of that quantum possibility of your future, you connect with, and align to, that frequency. The longer you can maintain and tune your energy in to that frequency, the more you vibrate at the same harmonic of energy. Now you’re connected to that future reality because you’re operating at the same frequency or vibration. The closer frequencies come together in space and time, the more they influence each other until they entrain to one frequency. That’s the moment when your future finds you. This is how you create new realities.
It stands to reason, then, that the instant your energy changes because you’re feeling lower, survival emotions, there’s dissonance and incoherence between you and your future reality. You are no longer resonating within the frequency of that possibility, and this causes you to become out of sync with the future you are trying to create. If you can’t give up that reaction because the addiction to those emotions has a grip on you, you’ll just wind up creating more of the same reality because your energy is vibrating equal to the reality you’re reacting to.
In Chapter 3, you learned that all possibilities exist in the eternal now and that when you get beyond your identity as a body connected to people, objects, places, and time, you become pure consciousness. You become no body, no one, no thing, no where, in no time. It is in that elegant moment that you transcend the material realm of matter and enter the quantum field of information and energy. Now that you are beyond your associations to this physical reality, you are creating from the unified field; thus you are creating from a level of energy that is greater than matter. For the most part, our students have practiced this sitting down. The purpose of the standing and walking meditation is to make you more mindful of the present moment, to help you maintain and sustain elevated states throughout the day, to keep you more connected to that future with your eyes open, and to assist you in literally stepping into your new future.
When you begin practicing walking meditations, it’s best to find a quiet place in nature so you’re not easily distracted. The fewer people and less activity around you, the easier it is to stay focused. Eventually, when you get better at it, you can practice this in a shopping mall, while walking your dog, or somewhere else out in public.
In many ways, the standing and walking meditations are just like the seated ones. You begin by standing still, closing your eyes, and resting your attention in your heart, all the while slowing down your breath and breathing in and out of this center. When you feel heart centered, just as you do in your seated meditations, you begin cultivating elevated emotions that connect you to your future.
Once you feel fully grounded in these elevated emotions, for a few minutes open your focus and radiate that energy beyond your body until you feel it within you as well as all around you. Next, lay upon the energy of these elevated emotions the intent of what you want for your day or your future, whether it’s to radiate a synchronicity, lead a noble life, make a difference in the world, create a new job or relationship, or something else. Now you are broadcasting a new electromagnetic signature into the field. The only difference is that instead of sitting with your eyes closed and radiating loving, elevated emotions, you’re standing up with your eyes closed so that when you open your eyes and begin walking, you’ll be able to embody that elevated energy.
As you continue to stand, eyes closed, with an open focus, you take your attention off of the outer world, and your brain waves slow down from beta to alpha states. This causes the thoughts, analysis, and chatter inside your head to quiet down, inducing a trance state and making you more suggestible. As you learned in the previous chapter, the longer you can remain in this trance state, the less resistance there is to new information entering your subconscious mind. When you’re in an elevated emotional state that aligns you with your future, you will be more prone to accept, believe, and surrender to the intentional thoughts equal to those emotions. This means the thoughts, visions, pictures, and images your mind is creating can make it past the analytical mind and you can program the autonomic nervous system to create the biology of your new future.
Since you have created the energy of your new future while standing with your eyes closed, now it’s time to open your eyes and begin walking. Don’t look at anyone, and don’t pay attention to objects or things, or anything else around you. Simply keep your focus open, transfix your gaze on the horizon, and remain in trance. The more you’re in trance, the less likely you’ll be to think in old, familiar ways. In the meantime, your mind will be connecting to the images of your new future rather than replaying programs of the past. Now you’re ready to walk into your future as someone else.
Because you are walking as your future self, you now have to become aware of the way your current self has always unconsciously walked. It’s time to alter your stride, your pace, your posture, your breathing, and your movements. You might smile instead of staring blankly. You may have to imagine what walking as a wealthy person feels like by modeling a wealthy person. You might adopt the posture of a courageous person you admire, walk within the elevated energy of your future healthy body, or walk as an open-hearted, loving, accepting person. Basically, you’re consciously embodying the person you’ve always dreamed you could be, but walking as if your future self is imperative. For example, you might imagine that it’s one or two years later and you already have all the things you want. The most important ingredient is for you to embody that future person now. If you already are that identity, you no longer need to wish you will become that person because it’s already happened—you already embody the qualities of your future. You are simply thinking, acting, and feeling your future self.
As you begin to practice walking differently, and continue to practice day in and day out, you’re going to get into the habit of walking like a wealthy person, thinking like a healthy person, standing like a confident person, and feeling like a free, unlimited, grateful person (gratitude means it already happened), instead of perhaps a beat-up, worn-down, stressed-out person. The more you practice, the more this new way of being will become a new habit, and these habits will become your new automatic patterns of thought, behaviors, and emotions. Once you start naturally feeling and embodying these elevated emotions, they will inhabit you, and you will actually become the person you want to be. Graphic 12 in the color insert shows a student who changes his brain in about an hour after doing a walking meditation.
Priming the Brain for Future Memories
The walking meditation is also about creating memories of things that haven’t happened yet in linear time—in effect, remembering your future. When you produce elevated feelings with your eyes closed, radiate that energy beyond the field of your body, and then open your eyes and begin walking and leading with your heart (feeling those elevated emotions with your eyes open), the more you feel that emotion, the more you’re going to pay attention to the pictures, images, and thoughts that are creating your feelings. This process naturally upgrades your neural circuitry by creating a new inward experience. Experience enriches the brain and creates memories. Now your brain is no longer living in the past; it’s living in the future. The more you embody your elevated emotions correctly, the more your brain and body will look like the future experience has already happened. That means you’re technically remembering your future.
Remaining in trance is important because as you align your body with your future and change your inner world, you’re creating long-term memories. Since where you place your attention is where you place your energy, you may even want to flash scenes of your Mind Movie in your head while you’re envisioning, embodying, and feeling your future. As you do this, those Mind Movie scenes will become the energetic and biological maps to your future. The act of feeling the emotions of your future (in the present moment) and combining these emotions with your intention does two things: It installs new circuits to make your brain an intentional map to the future and it also produces the emotional chemicals for that future event, which signals new genes in new ways, thus conditioning your body to prepare it for a new destiny.
Remember that this meditation is not about what you get in life; it’s about who you become—or who you are in the process of becoming. If you are trying to “get” wealth, success, health, or a new relationship, you are still conditioned to thinking you are separate from some thing and you have to go get it. But the truth is that the more you become that person, the more reality will shape and mold equal to your new state of being. It’s that process of consciously becoming that helps you maintain alignment to a different destiny. The more you practice the walking meditation and walk as your future self, the more you should be able to change your state of being with your eyes open, just as you did with your eyes closed. When you practice this enough times, you’ll not only carry that energy with you throughout the day, but you’ll embody it. This type of repetition will make you feel more mindful in your waking hours, and before you know it you’ll start automatically behaving, thinking, and feeling differently. This is programming a new personality to a new personal reality.
Over time, who knows? You might find yourself naturally walking like a happy person; behaving like a courageous and compassionate leader; thinking like a noble, empowered genius; feeling like a worthy, abundant entrepreneur. In the middle of your day you might become aware of the fact that the pain in your body is gone because you’re feeling so whole, unlimited, and in love with life. What you’ve done has made a habit out of being the person you want to be. This is because you installed the circuitry and signaled the latent gene to think, act, and feel in a new way. Biologically, you have become that person.
Becoming mindful and embodying your future self can occur many times throughout your day. Imagine that you’re waiting for a friend who is running late, and instead of feeling frustrated and bothered, you’re generating the energy of your future. When you’re sitting in traffic, instead of getting impatient and angry, practice tuning in to the energy of your future with your eyes open. Imagine that when you’re in line at the grocery store and judging a person for what they’re buying, you redirect your thoughts to feeling incredibly grateful for your new life, walking as your future self. Imagine when you walk to your car in the parking lot or to your mailbox, you’re naturally empowered by the thought of your new life. You’ll then begin to accept, believe, and surrender to the thoughts equal to that emotional state, and as you surrender to those thoughts, your body will make the chemistry equal to that emotional state. This is how you begin to program your autonomic nervous system into a different destiny, and the more you practice it, the less likely you are to return to autopilot and miss the present moment.
The Walking Meditation
Begin by finding a quiet space in nature. Disconnect from your external environment and anchor yourself in the present moment by closing your eyes. Acknowledge your heart center, where the soul and heart intersect with the unified field, and bring elevated emotions such as gratitude, joy, inspiration, compassion, love, and so on to this center. If you are going to believe in your new future with all of your heart, it had better be open and activated.
Rest your attention on the heart, allowing your breath to flow in and out of this center—ever more slowly, more deeply, and more relaxed—for about two minutes. Return to creating elevated emotions within your heart for two to three minutes. Radiate that energy into the space surrounding your body in space and stay present with that energy. Tune in to the energy of your future.
After a few minutes, hold a clear intention in your mind’s eye. You might pick a representative symbol that connects you to the energy of your future, the way you learned in Chapter 3. Change your state of being with the feelings of these elevated emotions, and focus on broadcasting that new electromagnetic signature into the field. Remain in this state for two to three minutes.
Next, open your eyes, and without looking at anything or anyone, open your focus and keep your awareness on the space around your body in space while maintaining a trance state. Begin walking with your eyes open while you stay entranced. With each step you take, embody that new energy—that new frequency of whatever you’re creating in your future. As you take this energy with you during your waking, daily life, walking as your new self, you are activating the same neurological networks and producing the same level of mind as when you meditate with your eyes closed.
Next remember your future. Let the images come, feeling them and embodying them. Own them. Become them. Continue to walk for about ten minutes, and then stop to recalibrate. Once again, close your eyes and raise your energy. Stay present with this energy for about five to ten minutes. For the next ten minutes, with your eyes open in trance, walk again with intent and purpose as your future self. With each step you take, embodying this new energy, you move closer to your destiny and it moves closer to you.
Do this cycle two times. When you finish the second round, stop and stand still one last time, really focusing on how you feel with your fourth energy center open. You can use this opportunity to affirm who you are based on how you feel. For example, if you’re feeling unlimited, you can literally acknowledge, “I am unlimited.” Next, place your hand over your beautiful heart, and be willing to feel valuable and worthy enough to receive what you have created. Raise your energy to its zenith and feel gratitude, appreciation, and thankfulness.
Now acknowledge the divine within you—the energy that powers you and gives rise to all of life. Give thanks for a new life before it’s made manifest. Acknowledging the power within you, ask that your life be filled with unexpected wonder, synchronicities, and coincidences that create a joy for existence. Radiate your love while loving your new life into existence.